- elevation 4,787 ft (1,459 m) Basin area 3,885 km² Discharge 0.09996 m³/s Mouth Salton Sea Cities Palm Springs | - elevation −233 ft (−71 m) Length 87 km Source San Bernardino Mountains Country United States of America | |
 | ||
- left Mission Creek, Garnet Wash , Thousand Palm Canyon Wash - right South Fork Whitewater River, San Gorgonio River, Chino Wash, Palm Canyon Wash, Cathedral Canyon - location Near San Gorgonio Mountain, San Bernardino Mountains, San Bernardino County - location South of Mecca, Riverside County | ||
The Whitewater River is a small permanent stream in western Riverside County, California, with a small upstream section in southwestern San Bernardino County. Its headwaters are in the San Bernardino Mountains and mouth—terminus in the Colorado Desert. The Whitewater River is in the endorheic Salton Sea drainage basin.
Contents
Map of Whitewater River, California, USA
The community of Whitewater is named after the river. In 2001 Huell Howser Productions, in association with KCET/Los Angeles, featured the river and nearby community in California's Gold.
San Bernardino MountainsEdit
The Whitewater River has three significant tributaries: the North, Middle and South Forks, all within the Sand to Snow National Monument.
The North Fork begins in the subalpine zone at about 10,000' (3,000 m.) on San Gorgonio Mountain and descends steeply southeast to the Middle Fork, which flows east through a wide arroyo. The South Fork flows northeast through a narrower wooded canyon, joining the Middle Fork lower down. The upper watershed is in the San Gorgonio Wilderness and San Bernardino National Forest, then it reaches land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Below the confluences the arroyo is at least 1/2 mile (1 km.) wide, paved with accumulations of boulders, gravel and sand brought down by floods and brushy except in stream channels cleared by floodwaters. Due to floods and shifting channels there is almost no riparian forest development, except very locally along unnamed minor tributaries with relatively stable channels.
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) enters the arroyo from the north and follows it downstream to a trailhead at the Whitewater Preserve, owned by The Wildlands Conservancy. A few fish have escaped upstream, establishing a small population of wild but non-native Rainbow Trout. These fish are confined to places where there is shade or tributaries with cooler water. Apparently they are not sufficiently adapted to elevated summer temperatures to colonize the rest of the stream.
Coachella ValleyEdit
Below the PCT trailhead the enclosing hills fall away so the arroyo exits from the San Bernardino Mountains near Morongo Valley into the western Coachella Valley. The San Gorgonio River which rises further west on the south side of San Gorgonio Mountain then joins it. Garnet Wash, Mission Creek, Chino Canyon Wash, Palm Canyon Wash, Cathedral Canyon and Thousand Palm Canyon Wash also join, but the water mainly penetrates through the porous desert floor, providing groundwater recharging of the Coachella Valley aquifer.
Before approaching Palm Springs, the Whitewater River is fed imported water from the Colorado River Aqueduct, managed by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. During rare floods, surface water may reach the endorheic basin of the Salton Sea, below sea level.